If you read my last editorial, in which I criticized smartphone OEMs for no longer braving the market with daring new and crazy form factors like they used to, this might sound familiar to you. Back around the time Android first hit the market, manufacturers were going berserk with all kinds of different designs for what might be the perfect smartphone. Phones like the Kyocera Echo that folded out to reveal a whole second display, or the LG Optimus Vu with a giant 4:3 display … well, those phones were pretty bad. But at least the companies took risks! But one form factor that seemed to ...

Even though it's been a while since Microsoft announced the Lumia 735, we haven't really seen the device much in the US. At a time when Microsoft is re-inventing itself and holding off major product launches until it finalizes Windows 10, it would make sense for us not to see new Lumias until later this summer. Still, it seems that Microsoft is splanning to launch something in the mean time, and this time it might be the Lumia 735. Photos of the Lumia 735 have emerged in a confidential FCC filing, and there are some minor differences to the Lumia 735s that we know. Instead of Nokia ...

Initially called the Nokia Camera, rebranded to Lumia Camera after the Microsoft acquisition, the application, in its Lumia Camera beta stage, has been added to the Windows Phone Store, should you want to join the beta program and check out new features before they hit the public version of the application. However, you'll have to rock a Lumia 930/Icon, Lumia 1520, Lumia 640, or Lumia 640XL phone powered by the Denim update, in order to download and install the app. Not to be confused with the Lumia Camera (sans beta) app, this version brings some features and improvements to the users ...

By far, the most popular content on websites like Pocketnow is the device reviews. We spend countless hours meticulously picking apart every aspect of every new smartphone we can cover, jotting down what we love and hate about them, and presenting our findings to you in the form of written and video reviews. But those are all reviews on specific devices, focusing on the faults and features of individual products. What about the smartphone mistakes that manufacturers as a whole make? We’ve put some thought into the errors and troubles made by the entire smartphone landscape, and compiled ...

Microsoft has been extremely aggressive about gaining customer feedback for all major products that are scheduled for a launch later this year. We've seen tremendous push in the Windows 10 technical preview for the desktop, and there's a mixed reception for Windows 10 on phones. Now its time for another major Microsoft service to get on the feedback wagon. Microsoft has just made its Office 2016 public preview official. After a few months as a developer preview, the company is now ready to take things further with regular consumers. According to the official statement: "In March we ...

Windows Phone has a problem. It’s a problem that has been festering for some time now. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed, and relatively soon. At the same time, it’s a problem that probably ~won’t~ be addressed for at least four to six months. That problem is not related to apps, and it’s not related to market share – at least not directly. You’ve probably read the headline, so you know I’m talking about Windows Phone flagships. Great brands are measured by their great products. iOS has famously shunned the lower-income customers by only ever releasing flagship ...

We've all praised Microsoft for the death of Internet Explorer in part of the company's Windows 10 announcements. We haven't really seen Microsoft's Spartan browser compared to others, but the features shown off at the event were cool enough to have us excited. We all thought the browser would simply be named "Microsoft Spartan," but it seems that the company is already considering something more appealing to the past. New internal surveys being conducted are already throwing around a couple of possible names for the browser. We do hear that Microsoft is experimenting with a couple of ...

Over the past few days we've been hearing tons about Windows 10 – Microsoft's new and improved operating system with a renewed focus on the future – but details have been relatively sparse about hardware. Sure, we've heard about the HoloLens and Surface Hub, but those two aren't going to be on the market for a while, if ever. Microsoft Mobile Devices exec Ifi Majid has finally told us some information we've been desperately trying to get for months now, that a Microsoft flagship smartphone launch is likely to take place this summer. We were hearing rumors swirl last month that ...

While Microsoft's Windows 10 event in Redmond today was by no means a short one – we had plenty of content to go over in-depth during our Editorial Roundtable – there were a few things that were left out of the presentation. One of those things is cause for celebration (or not, depending on how you'd like to look at it), and that's the Windows 10 default camera app: Lumia Camera. The same camera app included in the latest Lumia Denim update for all Nokia models will be the one found stock on all Windows 10 devices, including those manufactured by other OEMs such as HTC's. This is big ...

Microsoft's Windows 10 has left many of us on the edge of our seats. Many of the changes we saw in Redmond's new operating system make a ton of sense for desktop users, but what we're most excited about is how the new "OneCore" mentality will benefit Windows 10 for mobile devices. Microsoft's second big reveal for Windows 10 is scheduled tomorrow, but it seems that this event won't work as the last one. Trusted sources claim that even though tomorrow's Microsoft event will focus mainly on the mobile aspect of Windows 10, we won't see its first preview launched tomorrow like we saw a ...

Facebook hasn't been quite successful with its attempts to branch out into different services. So far the company has only found success in services it has acquired, like WhatsApp with 700 million users, and Instagram with 300 million users. The only in-house service that has found parallel success to Facebook is its Messenger service, which currently has 500 million active users, and to which the company is already planning major improvements. David Marcus, Facebook’s vice president of messaging products recently spoke at the Digital Life Design Conference in Munich. He detailed the ...

Most new device launches go the same way: usually the press gets review units before they’re widely available, and we get to use them for a few days -or a week if we’re lucky- as we work on our review. Then press day arrives. The embargo on media coverage lifts, and everyone posts their reviews and videos at the same time. It’s a huge frenzy, commenters go nuts, and it’s a giant explosion of frantic opinion-sharing activity. For about … a day. And then it all goes away. Sure, there’s followup coverage as people find bugs and hidden features, but after that initial blast, not ...

The past few days, editor Jaime Rivera has been sharing his thoughts on Microsoft's new Lumia Denim update, mainly the camera improvements to be specific. Spoiler alert: he can't get enough of the improvements. Now, if you want to get in on the improvements yourself officially, you've been out of luck. But finally, today, Redmond has flipped the switch, and the wider Microsoft Lumia Denim rollout is underway. If you've got a Windows Phone 8-powered Lumia device, you will get Lumia Denim, it's just a matter of time before that happens. The update is rolling out across the world, country by ...

Microsoft's Lumia Denim is probably one of the most anticipated Windows Phone updates since the inception of the operating system. On its own, Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 does a good enough job at setting Microsoft's mobile operating system on par with competition, but Lumia Denim takes a couple of steps further in differentiating Microsoft's hardware from even other Windows Phones. The list of updates that come with Lumia Denim is quite significant, but Microsoft felt the camera enhancements alone were important enough to give us a tour during our stay in Las Vegas for CES 2015. Our ...

HTC surprised a few people last year with a brand spanking new flagship phone for Windows Phone, the HTC One M8 for Windows. It was one of the most beautiful and powerful Windows Phones yet, but it still carried that 4 ultrapixel camera which my bias will not allow me to love. I’m sure it’s great and all, but I just can’t get behind it. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We're here to talk about an entry-level HTC Windows Phone, or two, or three. To Windows Phone, this was a great move. A new flagship! It helped bolster a strong, but aging lineup of Windows Phones. For ...

As you may recall, ten days ago I returned to my long-neglected Lumia 1020 for the holidays. This overdue reunion of contrarian nerd with fringe platform was meant to answer a question we get quite often in the Pocketnow Weekly mailbag: at the dawn of a new year, is Windows Phone still a world worth moving to (or even visiting)? In an atmosphere of delayed flagship launches and growing skepticism among some smartphone manufacturers, the question is more pertinent than ever. The answer, as it turns out, is yes — but it carries some very important qualifiers, and it's certainly not ...

The International CES begins in just a few days, with major press conferences lined up for January 5. That means the world is gearing up for one of the biggest tech conventions of the year: a great tech-filled beginning to 2015. Because CES encompasses not just mobile tech but the tech world as a whole, it's easy to get lost in the torrent of information that comes from the show. To try to help consolidate all you might have been hearing, we've rounded up the biggest and most relevant mobile rumors all in one place, ordered by manufacturer. Without further ado, here's our CES 2015 rumor ...

Happy New Year, everyone! By this time, regardless of the time zones, we are all in 2015, and we'll have to get used to writing "2015" instead of "2014" while talking about dates. I'll take this opportunity to thank everyone for being here with us throughout 2014, and wish you all a Happy New 2015. May all your wishes come true! And, don't forget to continue following us, as we've got exciting things lined-up for this year, as 2015 will be a huge milestone for Pocketnow (and that's all I can share at the moment). Our guys will soon head out to CES and our coverage will start as soon as ...

The Lumia 1520 is not only the largest Windows Phone money can buy, but it's also one of the most powerful models to reach the market. We highly praised Microsoft for the existence of the Lumia 1520, even though a ton of people agree that it's far too big for the average user. That said, the launch of the Lumia 1520 on AT&T left certain exclusive rights when it came to color options, and that just ended. If you remember, the Lumia 1520 launched on AT&T in April, and the specific Green color variant was an exclusive to AT&T for an undisclosed amount of time. We're not sure how ...

As usual, at the end of every year, we’re looking back at what happened over the course of twelve exciting months — that got us a lot of extraordinary products and services. We not only do this because it’s fun and important to recap some crucial events, but also because we usually also look at the future, trying to anticipate what the next year will bring us; and, in order to realistically try to predict things from the future, we need to know what happened in the past. So far, we looked at what we think were the best and worst apps of 2014, as well as the biggest disappointments ...

Even though most of us agree that Microsoft has done an amazing job at closing the app gap over the last couple of years, that doesn't change the fact that the iOS and Android currently sports almost triple the amount of apps on Windows Phone. The market share difference between these three platforms still leaves a significant challenge for developers to consider Windows Phone, even after the platform's fourth anniversary. Microsoft's new leadership has the task of improving these numbers soon, and today we learn how the company plans to do it. Mary Jo Foley is famous for her insider ...

As usual, at the end of every year, we’re looking back at what happened over the course of twelve exciting months — that got us a lot of extraordinary products and services. We not only do this because it’s fun and important to recap some crucial events, but also because we usually also look at the future, trying to anticipate what the next year will bring us; and, in order to realistically try to predict things from the future, we need to know what happened in the past. Just yesterday, we looked at what we think were the best and worst apps of 2014, and today we're continuing our ...

As usual, at the end of every year, we're looking back at what happened over the course of twelve exciting months -- that got us a lot of extraordinary products and services. We not only do this because it's fun and important to recap some crucial events, but also because we usually also look at the future, trying to anticipate what the next year will bring us; and, in order to realistically try to predict things from the future, we need to know what happened in the past. We're kicking off the year-end series today with the best apps, as well as the not so "impressive" applications of ...

Cortana's live tile on my Lumia 1020 recently showed a news headline that said, "Windows Phone has a massive apps problem". Here's another one that talks about the same thing "Look How Awful The App Situation Is For Windows Phone" Johanna Stern of WSJ recommends staying away from the HTC One M8 for Windows because of its lack of apps too. That seems to be the general consensus among tech journalists over the past 4 years since Windows Phone's launch. Those first two articles talk about the lack of apps that exist on other platforms or the abundance of unofficial apps with official ...

For months I've carried on under the guise of a Windows Phone user. My Twitter profile states it outright; longtime readers cite it in my defense whenever commenters call me on the carpet for "anti-Microsoft bias"; and my friends even unwittingly re-verify it when choosing random Facebook photos to tag me in. But as I explained in last week's episode of the Pocketnow Weekly podcast, my title of Windows Phone user has dwindled to a largely honorary one of late. The neverending stream of review devices from the Android, iOS, and wearable worlds has kept me outside the Microsoft ecosystem ...